BloodBorne - Of Men, Kin, and Beasts
by Shadowhams58
Summary: Three men of different walks of life are thrown together into the hunters dream. All seeking something different in the maddened streets of Yarhnam. Will they find the a things they seek in this blood soaked city? Or will madness claim them like so many others?
1. Chapter 1

Of Men, Kin, and Beasts

(Authors note: Disclaimer don't own any of the characters or premises in BloodBorne except the lads I made up. I'm sorry it takes awhile for me to publish these stories, I've not much time as an American high school student so Ihope you can forgive me that. Anyway enjoy my latest tale.)

"So you want a transfusion do you?" came the grizzled voice of the elderly man in his wheelchair. "Indeed I have." I replied and laid down upon the cloth and metal gerdur. "Well you've come to the right place, Yarnham is the home of blood ministration." He wheeled himself closer to me and stated. "But first you need a contract." His white beard hair grazing my arm. He pulled a small piece of parchment and a pen with red ink. "Your name?" "Corvenuse Hastrand." I replied smoothly. "Reason?" "The Hunt." The old man chuckled lightly at that and I felt my fists ball angrily. "Payment Method?" I sighed knowing the answer wasn't truly to my liking. "Service." I growled out. The Elderly man finished off the parchment and placed it in a satchel. "There all signed and sealed" he placed a needle attached to a blood bag into my arm. "hmm from here on it may all seem like a bad dream" He half whispered half growled and leaned much closer. I noticed then the bandages over his eyes and I frowned. Why the devil was I receiving treatment from a blind man? What had he just plugged into my arm? I attempted to sit up but the blood coursed through me and I felt I could not move. I heard the man began to laugh as my consciousness slowly faded away. My eyes open groggily as I attempt to move but cannot. I manage to look to my side and notice the blood pool upon the ground. Slowly a creature emerges from the pool of blood and growls. Panic spreads through me as what appears to be some kind of tattered wolf emerges from the blood pool. It moves towards me with an outstretched and bloodied claw. Suddenly fire erupts from the outstretched arm and spreads to the rest of its horrid body. Its corpse falls to the ground in cinders and a small sigh of relief escapes my lips. A weight is felt upon my legs and my arm. I look up and am met by the horrid faces of pale skeletal beings crawling upon my body. Panic again shoots through me as they crawl towards my face. Everything fades to black as they hover above my eyes making horrid breathing noises. Again my eyes open but now I sit up and I am relieved that my body can move again. I stood carefully from the little cot and look around angrily for the old man in his wheelchair. I was going to give quite the piece of my mind and probably my fist to that blasted old bugger, wheelchair or no. I angrily walked down the dark halls of the clinic grumbling to myself as I went. As I traveled down the halls I began to hear a strange huffing and growling sound coming from around the corner. I realized that for a Yarhnam clinic this place was also strangely empty. When I had stepped inside this morning it had been full up, now there was not a soul in sight. How long had I lain on that cot, writhing in those panicked blood dreams? Stepping around the corner I realized my nightmare had not ended. Hunched over amidst several rows of empty and bloodied cots and feeding upon the corpse of a man was the same creature that had emerged from the blood pool. Its fur was a jet black and its claws were as long as I remember. Fear paralyzed my spine as I stared at this beast, unarmed and vulnerable without my gear. Seizing upon my courage I slowly take a step back. Right into a small tray of medical tools that shake and fall to the floor, clattering noisily to the ground. The huffing and chomping stops as the beast lifts it's bloodied maw from it's meal. Slowly it turns to me, it's glowing yellow eyes full of hunger. I look for something, anything, to try to defend myself with and lunge for the largest scalpel I could find, sitting upon another tray of medical equipment near me. I hold it in front of me with a shaking hand as the monster approaches. Like a cornered rat I let out a scream of desperation and charge forward the scalpel clasped within my hand. The beast roars and leaps forward its curved dagger like teeth sinking into my left shoulder. I scream in pain and stab the beast in retaliation. The beasts teeth release from my shoulder as it jumps back and roars in pain. I fall to the ground, blood pouring from my shoulder as I prop myself up with my good arm. The beast had recoiled several feet and I could see what I had done. The scalpel was lodged deep into one of its eyes and it was attempting to claw it out with it's front claws. I looked down at my bloodied arm and knew I was done, blood was pouring from where the teeth had punctured my arm and I could already feel my strength leaving me. Before coming to Yarhnam I had seen men die from wounds much smaller than these and yet I struggle to my feet. Pain trying to snatch my breath away as my legs struggle to lift me from the ground. The beast had finally managed to claw the long scalpel from its eye and it stared at me, the hunger in its remaining eye accompanied now by rage. I took a deep breath and thought of how unfortunate it is that I would not be able to see my sister again. Gritting my teeth I charge forward as the beast did the same. My fists balled I let out one finale cry and I feel its teeth bite into me head for but a moment before everything went black. My mind wandered in oblivion until I felt the cold of cobblestone beneath me. My eyes open and I gaze, bewildered, at a large house seated at the end of the cobble stone road.

..oO0Oo..

Blood. It's all i can see. The crimson red of life that now coats my vision. I don't know where I am. I can't see anything but red. I feel something squishy under my hand. I think I crushed it. I think I hear a yell, a scream maybe? I can't tell. It's as if the blood has congealed in my ears and the world outside is muffled. I feel a pain, sharp and true. It penetrates my stomach and I feel my feet leave the floor. Something hard is pressed against my back, or maybe the other way around. The strength leaves my arms and legs as the blood slowly bleeds away from my eyes. Several men stand before me, I think they have a pitch fork. I look down at my stomach and realize it's been stabbed. I look back into the eyes of my killers and I reach out my hand. My clawed bloodied hand, strange. The men simply stabbed into me harder and the residual blood fades to darkness. My eyes shoot open and I sit up in a small clearing of flowers and dirt. The side of a large wooden house visible just beyond the flowers.

..oO0Oo..

The glass jar of eyes shattered as it hit the floor next to the white garbed women. "Leave this place!" I screamed as the silent member of the choir approached me. Her bladed cane gleaming menacingly in the moonlight. "The Church has no place here anymore!" I yelled throwing another jar of eyes at the women. She moved to the side as it crashed against the wooden floor and shattered. Eyeballs rolling across the floor. I grabbed another jar as I steadily retreated towards the open door. The choir member cracked her cane and it spread out into a bladed wipe. raising it up into the air and she slices it across the air and my chest. The air caught in my throat as I stumbled backwards out the open door. My left hand clutched at my bleeding chest as I propped myself up with my right. The silent church agent closed in on me, slamming her cane on the ground to shape it back into its normal form. "You pathetic beasts will never ascend to the plan of the great ones. The blood of the old ones will be your undoing" I choked out furiously and stared the white robes choir women in the eyes. At this I could see a small frown crease her mouth as she stood over me. With a finale move she shoved the pointed end of that cane through my chest, and my heart. As I bled out in the moonlight my vision fades to black, ready to embrace oblivion. However I awake. In a field of beautiful flowers and faded tombstones, with a wooden house visible behind a great tree.


	2. Chapter 2

Corvenuse POV:

I stood from the cobble stone where I had awoken and surveyed the place I now stood. Where was I? More importantly why am I not dead? I remembered the beasts roar and the pain as it bite into my head. I could not possibly have survived that. I walked up the cobblestone path to a small rock wall. Sitting against it on a raised platform of rock and soil was a woman. She seemed to be staring of into the distance at what I could not tell, but she did not blink or move as I neared her. As I drew closer I realized it was not a woman at all, instead placed delicately on that tiny plateau was a doll. A doll the size of a women with a colorful and patterned bonet settled upon her pale blonde hair that looked much like my own. Her eyes were a strange yellow color, a pale yellow that again looked much like my own, and her face looked smooth as marble. She was wrapped all in a shawl with the same patterns as her bonnet, except for her fingers which poked out and showed me with certainty that this was indeed no women. As I moved forward to touch it a strange rustling was heard beyond us. I stopped and moved past the doll, away from the cobblestone path and to where it sloped up past a line of tombstones. At the top of the path, next to the house, was a man. His long shoulder length black hair was extremely disheveled and a long unkempt beard sprouted from his face. I saw that he wore a red vest over a white shirt and black tie, with normal civilian pants and shoes over his legs and feet. I realized that his clothes were also stained a very dark red almost black. His dark brown eyes stared into my pale yellow ones with the curiosity of a beast who is deciding whether someone is prey or predator. I decided to make the first move and called out to him. "Where am I?" I questioned loudly and took a step forward. He simply stared at me a moment before he gave an unconcerned shrug and jumped down from the small hill to face me. "I've not a clue Mate." He said with a strong accent, as we stood on equal ground. "Though I imagine we're dead." He said this calmly and scratched his beard while looking around. "Got'a be something like Purgatory this." I looked around again this new thought of actually being dead creeping into my head. No I couldn't be dead I had to find my sister and I would be damned if some blasted wolf would stop me from that. The man sniffed and continued "Me names Corvac by the way." He said offering his hand. It was caked in dirt and a black substance that was most likely dried blood. I took it anyway, not very concerned for cleanliness at that point. "Corvenuse." I said in turn. "Ah good man." he said with a wide smile though his eyes still spoke of some wariness of me. "Now what ye say about 'avein a look around eh?" He asked gesturing to the large door up the cobblestone path behind me. I nodded "Yes, lets."

..oO0Oo..

Delarams POV:

I heard voices coming from the other side of the stone and wooden house. I decided upon a rather cautious approach as I stepped through a gate leading from the large garden to a small pebbled path. Walking lightly along the path I began to hear voices going back and forth as I approached the stone and wood house. "Is anybody home?" I heard a refined voice call out. "We just want ta have a word with ya." Came another, this one influenced by a heavy accent from a land I did not recognize. As I rounded a small bend onto a cobblestone path that led up to a the great doors of the house. Standing in front of the giant double doors were two men. One had pale blonde hair tied back in a small ponytail with a black ribbon. Even from the back it was clear that his attire was tailor made and fit for a noble. It was dark brown in color and on his shoulder a fine shoulder cloak of a lighter brown came down to his knee. Upon his blonde head sat a tricorn hat of the same color as the cloak and I could see the man's boots and gloves were made of a similar fine leather. The second man however was certainly no noble. His plain clothes were almost as dishevelled as his greasy black hair and I could clearly see the blood stains all about his attire. "Hmmm perhaps we could find a way in around the back?" The noble man questioned the bloodied man. "Well it can't hurt ta give it a knock." he smiled through his unkempt beard. "Or maybe a hard thump." The noble simply nodded his approval and turned. Turned right to see me. "Blast" I grumbled as I ducked back around a bend. "Wait we only wish to talk." Came the anxious voice of the noble. "Aye, get back 'ere 'afore I come and drag ye out." I sigh and step back around the bend. The two had made their way down the stairs and close to the bend when I came back around. I could see their faces clearly now as they stared at me with curiosity. The Noble had pale yellow eyes like I had never seen before and his clean shaven face was paler than his hair. The other man's face was almost completely obscured by his jet black hair that ran over his dark brown eyes and his scruffy beard that almost completely hide his lips. From what I could tell though he was several shades darker than the noble and certainly at least one shade darker than myself. Before they spoke I bowed quickly, deciding to make the first move, and said hastily "My name is Delaram, last scholar of Byrgenworth."

..oO0Oo..

Corvenuse P.O.V.

I smiled inwardly, pleased that the man before us could show some respect, and execute a decent bow. I returned the gesture with a bow of my own, one taught in my childhood home of Cainhurst. As I rose I introduced myself in turn. "Corvenuse, of the Forsaken castle." I said in the voice of a knight. I surveyed him as I spoke. His face carried a small dusting of stubble and his dark brown hair was cropped moderately short. What truly caught my attention however were his eyes, Both were of different colors. The left being an icy light blue, and the other being a dark blue deep as the ocean. It was an interesting sight indeed, though they made me more uneasy than Corvacs plain brown eyes. The man, Deleram, wore the loose scholarly robes of a student made of black, red, and some yellowish fabric. Corvac himself clearly made his own assessment of the man and offered his hand as he had to me. The Scholar stared at it for a moment clearly noticing the dried blood stains on the man's hand. After a moment however he took it in a firm grip. As they shook Corvac smiled and introduced himself at last. "Names Corvac mate, though I've not got any fancy titles like yous." He said with a smile that showed his teeth through his beard hair. "Though, good ta know i'm not the only one wandering 'bout this 'ere purgatory." The mention of the neutral zone of the afterlife seemed to unnerve the scholar a bit though he clearly tried not to show it. "A strange Purgatory indeed." was his reply as he seemed to look about our present surroundings with new suspicion. Corvac made to reply but before he did a large slam was heard and upon turning around I could see that the large front doors had at last opened. "Well flip me 'round and smack my arse, wasn't expecting that!" Corvac exclaimed to no one in particular. "Neither did I." I muttered after a moment and walked cautiously towards the large house. Looking inside I realized that it resembled a workshop more than a home, with several benches placed against the walls with blades of all different shapes and sizes hung above them. stacks of books littered the spaces between the benches, however what truly caught my eye was the old man sat in a wheelchair. He looked up to me and our eyes met. We seemed to share a brief moment of recognition between one another for, though we had never met in person, we knew each other. "Come here lad, lets have a look at you." Came the raspy old voice of Gerhman the first hunter. I obeyed immediately and walked to stand in front of the old man. His clothes were disheveled and tattered, his face full of wrinkles and etched with pain. But I could still recognize him from what my sister had told me about her mentor among the hunters. "You are Gerhman are you not?" I questioned respectfully. The old man chuckled and smiled at me. "She told you of me did she?" He asked looking into my eyes. "She did, I am infact looking for my sister. Have you seen her?" I asked finally receiving some hope that I might finally find her. Suddenly his face turned down and pain creased ever part of his features. "No, ive not seen her of late…" I was about to ask what he meant but Corvac decided then insert himself into the conversation. "Well if you don't mind mate I'd like to know what the 'ell is going in 'ere?" He asked coming to stand next to me and in front of Gerhman. Deleram followed and stood at my other side, though he said nothing. "This is the hunter's dream. You are not dead and the dream will sustain you as you venture into the waking world." Corvac looked between me and Deleram before looking back to Gerhman, then he looked back to me."What the 'ell is he on about?" I could hear Deleram sigh to my left before he looked to Gerhman and was about to say something before the old man cut him off. "Look just go out and kill a few beasts, you know it's just what hunters do." He tapped his cane on the ground and behind us several clusters of pale white beings emerged from the ground holding up to us various weapons. "These messengers will help you get started." Gerhman said behind us. To Deleram the messengers handed a simple looking mace, with a corded grip and spherical head. "Is this what I think it is?" he muttered and experimentally swung the mace. Upon the swing the mace erupted into sparks and cackled menacingly. They then handed him a small pistol for his off hand. "My thanks." Delaram said gripping the pistol and experimentally aiming it at a stack of books while closing one eye. To Corvac they handed an axe of black iron with a handle wrapped in cords of leather. He took it cautiously and after studying it for a moment extended it until it was nearly his own height. "Bugger me!" He exclaimed staring at the axe with no small amount of surprise written on his face. "Now this is what I call an axe!" He exclaimed swinging the weapon experimentally and taking out a small stack of books which made Gerhman grimace slightly. The messengers offered up a bulky Blunderbuss next, to which the bearded man grinned devilishly and pushed the axe back into its one handed form before gripping the handle of the gun. He aimed its business end at another stack of books with another big grin plastered on his face. "Save those bullets for a beast friend." I said gripping his shoulder lightly. He looked at me with a frown but seemed to work out the reason in his head because he shrugged and lowered the gun. "I've little to offer you Corvenuse but I'm sure you've brought weapons from home." Came the raspy voice of the first hunter. "I did but they await me in a chest in the blood clinic of Yarnham." I answered, my hands tightening into fists at the thought of my gear left in a chest behind that beast. Gerhman nodded and waved his hand in a beckoning gesture. A group of messengers appeared next to my and offered up a long wicked looking weapon, a long handle of hard wood curved in the center and wrapped in cloth with an equally long saw blade of bone with a sharp point at its end. I took the deadly looking weapon in my right hand and flicked it forward, unfolding it into its full length. "My thanks Gerhman." I said giving the weapon an experimental swim before flicking it back into its folded state. "Think nothing of it lad, just go out there and kill some beasts."


	3. Chapter 3

Corvenus P.O.V.

We stepped lightly through the halls of yarnhams blood ministration center, weapons at the ready. I could hear the beast chewing upon flesh as it had been the last time I'd walked through here. Rounding a corner we saw it, greedily gnawing the same corpse it had been eating the last time I'd tiptoed my way through these halls. Corvac moved forward but I placed a hand on his chest to stop him. He turned to me with an expression of "What the 'ell are you doin mate?" I simply shook my head at him and placed my left hand on my chest before pointing with it towards the beast, mouthing the word "mine" as I did so. Corvac seemed to understand and took a step back lowering his axe and blunderbuss as he did so. I turned to Deleram to make sure he understood and he nodded to me, taking a step back with Corvac as he did so. I nodded back and turned towards the beast. I stepped forward quietly and the beast heard not a sound as I approached. When I stood five feet from the beast I flicked my wrist and unfolded the blade of my saw spear. It whipped around in shock as it heard the noise. It was to slow to do anything as I raised my weapon in both hands above its head and plunged it down. I could see the primal terror in its one eye as the sharp point glistened moments before impaling its skull. With such force I drove it down that I heard it tip strike the wooden floor beneath the beast. A roar escaped it maw before it was cut short as the saw spear pierced its head, it convulsed once then lay still. For several moments we all stood in silence as a pool of blood seeped from the beast's head. At last I let out a breath I hadn't realized I'd been holding and allowed my ridged muscles to slacken. I yanked the saw blade spear from the beast's corpse and stared into the now vacant eyes of the dead monster. Corvac came up behind me and clapped me on the back, a wide smile breaking apart the Black Sea of his beard with white teeth. "Feckin top notch job mate!" He exclaimed happily. "Thank you." I replied, stepping over the monster and walking to the chest in the right corner of the room. Dropping the saw spear I gripped the chest with both hands and heaved it open. Inside were random primitive weapons and items left by Yarhnamites that must have come here for blood treatment, among them I spied the weapons I sought. A long straight blade of silver metal with an etched golden hilt, crossguard, and pommel. I smiled happily as I withdrew it from the chest and my right hand lovingly ran my fingers across the length of the blade until it grasped the curved hilt. Flicking my wrist the elegant silver blade shifted down and in front of the beautifully crafted barrel of a pistol. Pointing and at a stack of books in the corner, one of them titled " _How to pick up fair maidens."_ I fired and the pistol discharged a pointed silver bullet into the cover of the odd book. Flicking my wrist the silver blade replaced itself overtop of the golden barrel. Reaching into the chest again my hand wrapped around a familiar grip and withdrawing it found my beloved pistol, like my blade masterfully crafted and etched with beautiful carvings along its long barrel. I aimed the pistol, Evelyn, at the remaining vacant eye of the beast and taking a controlled breath pulled the trigger. The barrel fired in a small plume of smoke and sparks, launching a round bullet into the eye. The beast's eye exploded into a tiny shower of blood and white matter. The echo of gunfire faded and I turned to Corvac and Delaram with what I'm sure must have been a maddened smile. For I felt it stretch nearly from ear to ear and before I could stop myself the words had already left my mouth. "Let's go hunt some beasts."

..oO0Oo..

Delaram P.O.V.

Corvac shoved open the gate leading from the blood clinic into the whole of Yarhnam as we at last ventured into the darkened city. I shook my head at the thought of entering it, at Byrgenwerth the scholars had mocked and amused themselves with how foolish we thought the Yarhnamites. How like sheep they had flocked to the traitor Laurence's church and greedily imbibed of the old blood. Many had thought it just penance when the word of Yarhnams nightly hunts reached us, the cities just deserts for so readily accepting the old blood with neither care nor caution. At the time I had agreed with them, but now treading the cobblestone streets of the same city I could not help but hope that the stories about its hostilities towards outsiders were overstated. Walking down the street we neared a carriage parked without horses upon the road. In the silence of the night I could hear the grating sound of metal scraping against the cobblestone street. Corvenus and Corvac could clearly hear it as well for they had stopped walking and now stood weapons at the ready, poised for combat and looking towards the carriage. Light shone from behind it and after a moment an unnaturally tall man garbed in black and dragging a plane axe behind him emerged from behind the black carriage. Almost everything about the man was wrong, he was at least seven feet tall and had tufts of fur sprouting from a sickly grey face. Perhaps the oddest thing was his arms were of varying lengths. His off hand held a burning torch and was of normal length but the arm holding the axe was almost comically disproportionate to the other. It was long enough that it extended past the sleeve of his black coat, revealing an arm of bristling fur that hide the skin from sight, before quickly disappearing into the length of a long white glove. The arm itself was long enough to reach past his knees and I couldn't help thinking that Master Willem was right, the Healing Church had doomed the city of Yarhnam with the old blood. The man looked up past his wide brimmed hat and spotted us. "Foul Beasts!" The man yelled through yellow and disfigured teeth. Spittle flew from his lips and he charged towards us, the axe dragging loudly behind him. "I'll deal with the bugger." Corvac said stepping forward and extending his axe out into its two handed form. Grasping it near the bottom Corvac swung the extended axe horizontally at the charging man. The blade caught the man in the neck, the blade sinking deep enough to nearly cleave the man's head from his shoulders. A strangled cry culminated with a spray of spit and blood erupted from his disfigured mouth before Corvac jerked the axe from the man's neck and he crumpled to the ground. Flopping down with a heavy thud the torch rolled away from his dead hands. "Well that was fun." Corvac said turning to us with a face and shirt coated in fresh blood. A smile showing white teeth through his black beard. "Well done." Said Corvenus before stepping over the man's corpse and around the carriage. Corvac and I followed him across the cobblestone street until we came to a lever with a corpse next to it. "I got this." Corvac exclaimed grasping the lever in both hands after holstering his axe and blunderbuss. As he heaved on the lever I heard noises behind us, turning I saw two deformed and misshapen men in civilian clothing standing from the ground. Like the last man they had clearly been afflicted by the old blood, with one arm down below their knees and coarse hair sprouting from their sickly grey skin. They screamed something unintelligible through their crooked teeth and charged us. Corvenus and I stepped forward to met them, one carried a type of sickle while the other wielded a meat cleaver. The man with the sickle rushed Corvenus slashing at him angrily while bellowing some obscenities. The noble simply side stepped to the left and with his sword cut a swath of red through the man's side. He collapsed under the weight of the wound and his own momentum throwing him the ground as his legs buckled. The man with the meat clever charged me in a similar manner. Weapon raised and roaring random insults. I raised my pistol and put a bullet in his leg. It ripped through his trousers and flesh with ease as he collapsed to the ground. He struggled to stand as I drew near, flicking the mace to alight it in blue sparks. The man struggled to one knee as I stepped in front of him, looking up at me he yelled "Cursed Beast!" I felt a sneer across my face before raising the mace and striking his head. The metal of the mace broke the bones of his face while the electricity leaped from the head of the mace and across the man's skull. The huntsmen's brain fried and his eyes exploded into mushy pulp as his twitching corpse fell to the stone ground, his body still giving off faint sparks of blue electricity. "Oi ladders down, nice job with those buggers." Came Corvacs voice from behind us. I turned, my breath shaky after my first kill, to see the bearded man scurrying up the ladder. His axe and blunderbuss swaying precariously at his sides. Corvenuse was standing next to the ladder his pistol and rapier sheathed at his side with one hand gripping the metal ladder, he was staring at me one eyebrow raised questioningly above his pale yellow eyes. I waved a hand dismissively at the question his eyes asked and he simply nodded, starting up the ladder after Corvac. I holstered my pistol and Tonitrus before joining the others on the metal ladder. As we climbed I called up to Corvenuse asking "What type of sword is that. I've never its like before."

"It was named the Reiterpallasch by my forebears." He answered without looking back.

"That's one 'ell of a mouth full." Came Corvacs voice voice from further up.

"I think it means-" An inhuman screech broke the eerie silence of the night and brought our climb abruptly to a halt. All of us stopped and turned our heads towards the great bridge we could see beyond the city where we heard the scream emanate from. "What in the fucking 'ell was that?" I heard Corvac ask above me. "I do not know, but I imagine we will find out soon enough."


	4. Chapter 4

Corvac P.O.V.

The scholar and I walked cross a cobblestone bridge past some glowing lantern we'd found at the ladders end. Strange thing it was, started glowing an odd purplish light when that bloody noble lite it. Those fiendish little white imps came out the ground immediately after. All heavy breaths and tiny yawning mouths that lot. Give me the willies they do. Delaram and I walked into an area with a couple of crates and a broken fence at one end. I walked to it and peered out o'er the edge. Below were a few more stacked crates and one of those mutated beast men buggers with a sickle. "Oi Del got one o'er 'ere." I called to him quietly. "Do you wanna jump dow-" "WAAAAH!" came a yell from behind us and I turned to see a beast man smashing through the crates with a cleaver. Bugger startled me so bad I tripped o'er my own feet reaching for me axe. Tripped right off the edge and down onto those blasted crates below. I groaned and rolled to the right so I could get up. Instead I rolled right off the side of the crates and onto the cobble stone floor below. Never thought I'd be kissin cold stone but there I was lips planted against the dirty streets of this bloody insane city. Above me I heard another yell and instead of looking up I did the instinctual thing that sent me onto the cobblestone ground in the first place. I rolled to the right and narrowly avoided the sickle scraping across the ground where I once was. Towering above me was the beast man I had seen from the ledge and he was bringing that gleaming sickle down towards me. I tried to bring up my axe but I was to slow and a sharp pain erupted from my shoulder as the blade pierced through my street clothes and into my flesh. I yelled in pain and the beast man ripped the blade out of my shoulder, raising it o'er his head for another strike. Adrenaline coursing through me I blocked the next blow with my axes blade and put the barrel of me trusty blunderbus to the bastards stomach. "Fuck off." I breathed as I pulled the trigger. The beast man staggered back out of view and I heard him collapse onto the ground behind me. For several moments I simply lay there staring up at the dark night sky of this pox taken city. As the moments passed the adrenaline left my system and the pain in my shoulder becomes sharper. "Corvac are you alright?" I hear that noblemen call from the ledge I'd tumbled off of. Shifting my eyes I see the two buggers perched on the ledge and staring down at me, Delaram with more blood coating his scholarly robes. "I'm fine." I groan, forcing myself up from the ground into a sitting position. I hear the two jump down onto the crates and then onto the stone ground in front of me. "Here this should help the wound." I hear Delaram say as he injects me with some syringe full of red liquid. Immediately the pain fades and I feel the flesh of me shoulder knit back together. "Thanks mate." I reply standing up with Corvenuses. "How many more vials do we have?" The noblemen asks, addressing Delaram. "Seven, though I'm sure we will find more throughout Yarhnam. From what I know this town was practically drowning in the blood before all of this chaos set it. I'm certain some of the beast men will have vials on their person." The scholar said long windedly. "We'll have to search the ones we kill." Corvenuse said before walking over to the bastard I'd shot in the belly. He rummaged around in the buggers coat before pulling two vials of blood from its pockets. "Delaram, give Corvac three of your vials. We can scrounge up more as we go along." He said said walking towards the stairs "let's move."

..oO0Oo..

Corvenuse P.O.V.

We'd stopped on the stairs when I'd spotted a group of the beastly mob heading our way up the street. Together Delaram and I had crouched behind the pure that sat burning the corpse of some fully developed beast, while Corvac crouched behind the boxes. As we waited for the group to pass I couldn't help but wonder, was this what these townsmen were doomed to? To eventually devolve into this rabid looking beast that he now found staked to a burning cross. The man, Gilbert, at the window had said something about being able to die human thanks to the old blood. Did these men imbibe the blood to stave of this beastly scourge? No of that worked then these mobs would be comprised of normal men, not half mad beast men drunk with the very blood they imbibed. No something else must have been going on here and I wanted to get to the bottom of it. The healing church seemed to be at the bottom of all of it, Gilbert had said that if we could get across the great bridge we might be able to find answers. "They are gone let's move." Delarams voice pulled me from my thoughts as we shuffled stealthily forward down the stairs and onto the cobblestone streets. We followed the group of beast men at a distance as the shuffled through the streets, some wielding pitchforks, others axes, a few with hatchets and a few others with wooden shields. They passed several downed carts and walked into an open square with a full mob of beast men gathered around a burning effigy of a large wolf like creature, that looked like the one I'd killed in the clinic, nailed cruelly to the burning cross. "What the bleedin fuck is goin on 'ere?" Corvac murmured to himself. "I'd heard of the Yarhnamites pension for violence during the hunts, but I'd never imagined anything like this." Delaram echoed his own surprise behind me. I clenched my teeth and surveyed the area as best I could. There several groups of beast men gathered around the pire, most with axes, hatchets, and cleavers. However some I could see carried sharp Cavalry swords as well as two beast men I could see holding long rifles. Behind us I heard a shuffling of movement and turned to see a huntsmen holding a rifle rising from his spot crouched in the corner where the first carriage met the wall. My mind turned cold and calculating and I realized I hadn't the time to alert the others. I dived forward rapier at the ready as I tucked into a roll. My silver blade pierced through the rifle men's chest as I came up. The beastman released a low growl that turned into a gurgle as dark blood leaked from his lips. The rifle fell back to his side and as I stood and removed the blade from his chest he fell to his knees before falling flat onto his face. "Fuckin 'ell that was some fast moves mate." Corvac said coming over to me and clapping a hand onto my shoulder. "Nice fuckin work." He gave a small kick to the dead beast man's head. "I fear we have much more work to do Corvac." I said, letting out breath that I hadn't known I'd been holding in. Turning back towards the mob I felt a torch come to light in my mind. "My friends I have an idea."


End file.
